The Lessers meet the Majors

Greek Cases

"Peace on earth, good will toward men" (Luke 2:14 KJV). You have probably all received Christmas cards containing this part of the angel's song to the shepherds on the fields of Bethlehem. But most modern translations read differently: "'on earth peace to men on whom his [God's] favor rests'" (NIV): "'and on earth peace among those whom he [God] favors (NRSV).'"

The difference between the KJV an the others is the difference betweren the nominative and the genitive. The Greek manuscripts used to translated the KJV contains eudokia (nomination), whereas the older manusripts used to translate the modern versions contain eudokiaV (genitive) -- literally translated, "'of good will'" or "'characterized by [God's] good pleasure.'"

In other words the peace that the angels sang that belonged to the earth as a result of the birth of Christ is not a generic, worldwide peace for all humankind, but a peace limited to those who obtain favor with God by believing in his Son Jesus (see Romans 5:1). What a difference a single letter can make in the meaing of the text!"
~ Verlyn Verbrugge

Heterodoxy

Dr. Revelson told a story about an occurrence that he endured in the classroom having been critiqued by a peer. In that moment when he assumed the possibility that he could have been wrong, and therefore teaching things that were wrong, he was immediately confronted with a kind of enduring and penetrating fear. "What have I done?" Gladly, he was reaffirmed about the veracity of what he was teaching.
Even still, this kind of reaction would be appropriate and I fear that there are too few teachers like him. It seems that a teachers concern for correspondents and truth-agreeing propositions would be a virtuous thing. Sadly too many professional talkers assert themselves and their prerogatives without a concern for whether or not what they are saying is true, whether or not it agrees with the reality of things. It must be said, wrong teaching or heterodoxy echoes forward in such a dynamically transforming way that we may never have the capacity to reverse its affects and effects. Can you imagine what God would do to such a man?

Suffering

Suffering etches its way into our lives emphatically imposing itself upon us without invitation. And yet no matter how dynamically difficult things get, the substance and content of our affirmations -especially in these times- must not stray from a right sense of what is, and what corresponds with reality. This gives us every reason to lift our eyes, as it were, and to affix our gaze upon Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith. For He is our ever present help in time of trouble because in an ultimate sense the Truth is in Christ, who is the same yesterday today and forever. In a word, the substance of our peace and serenity in times of sheer devastation and calamity is bound up in the merits of Christ who soverignly holds all things even when things seem so unexplainably hard and chaotic...

Ignatius

"From Syria to Rome I fight with wild beasts, on water and on land, by day and by night, chained to ten leopards [soldiers]made worse by signs of kindness. Yet their wickednesses do me good as a disciple; but not on this account am I justified. Would that I might be glad of the beasts made ready for me. And I pray that they may be found ready for me. Nay, I will fawn upon them, that they may devour me quickly, and not, as they have done with some, refuse to touch me from fear. Yea, and if they will not voluntarily do it, I will bring them to it by force." ~ Ignatius

Ignatius was brought before the Emperor Trajan at Antioch in the ninth year of his reign (107–108), was condemned to death as a Christian, was transported in chains to Rome, was there thrown to lions in the Coliseum for the amusement of the people

http://www.ccel.org/ccel/schaff/hcc2.v.xv.vi.html

Today, Jerusalem

Oh, Jerusalem, Jerusalem... How often I have long to gather you together like a mother gathers her chicks under her arm, and you would not... seeing will not come until you say Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Father(Matt 23)
Whatever it is that Jesus is saying, Matthew intentionally uses this in juxtaposition to Jesus' entrance into Jerusalem in chapter 21 riding in on a donkey, because the crowd says this very thing.

After speaking with a professor here, I was introduced to the fact that Jesus is quoting a famous line from Εὐριπίδης (ca. 480 BCE–406 BCE) play, "Heracles." Megara responds to Amphitryon: "these children of Heracles, whom I am guarding 'neath my wing as a bird keepeth her tender chicks under her" in her bewilderment at the absence of Heracles.
I guess Euripidus's play, "the Trojan Woman," also has a similar play of words meaning that this analogy Matthew is drawing by quoting Jesus' quotation of Euripidus could interplay with "The Trojan Woman" in order to draw a reasonable juxtaposition...

Greek Alphabet and other little ditties

The Koine Dialectus or common dialect is in no case original to itself. It emerges from peculiar and unique process at work in the development of language proper by an evolution familiar in linguistics. Dr. Wagner suggested that History itself is in some measure if not completely dependent upon language. The ideals or memories of a particular dispensation or age are extended to another by means. It seems that by and large memories are fixed to symbols and those symbols represent the memories that are past from one generation to the next. It follows that the more securely a memory is attached to a symbol the more the testimony or story attests to the memory. At the risk of extreme reduction, Cuneiform and Akkadian birth Proto-Canaanite and Egyptian which has bearing in just the way Cuneiform and Akkadian have on the emergence of the Proto-Semitic script. The evolution from Semitic to Greek passes by way of convergence...

Classical Greek takes a very interesting turn with the reign to Alexander the Great. In 333 B.C. Alexander took possession of the orient; his forces had swept into Greek rule the East. Note whenever Alexander conquered he would turn captives into soldiers in this way incurring a greater military capacity. In order to exercise authority over his soldiers it became necessary to have common symbols for the sake of command and comradery - symbols for tactical movements and military strategies. This process contributes to the evolution of Koine - the Common Dialect.
Note over the course of many years scholarship has wrestled with Greek pronunciation having such a corridor of time between then and now and the confusion between intellectuals and commoners. The pure classical language would have no doubt had a different pronunciation than its Koine daughter. Obviously, Homer and Peter spoke distinguished kinds of Greek. To what extent this affects dialect and pronunciation is a matter of debate. One moving through Reuchlin and Erasmus to today's academy. According to Francis Bopp the chief means of reclaiming the original pronunciation was bound up in onomatopoeias. Take for instance the bn . Francis Bopp found references to the sound sheep make in classical Greek and therefore concluded that the b and the n follow the hard b and the short e not the soft v or the long e.